The Effect of Crime Type and Knowledge about Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) on the Judgement of Defendants with ASD

lObjective of the study
Research found that defendants with ASD are judged more lenient than defendants for whom no diagnosis is mentioned. With this study, we test whether 1) knowledge about ASD is required to lead to more lenient judgements for people with ASD; and 2) the type of crime (crime: autism
relevant vs. autism irrelevant) impacts on the judgement of autistic defendants.
Methodology
A 3 (defendant information: "ASD + Knowledge" vs. ASD vs. control)· 3 (type of crime: assault vs. stalking vs. burglary) between-within subjects design was used. Participants (N = 146) were randomly assigned an experimental group and presented with three fictional crime vignettes. Two groups ("ASD + Knowledge" and "ASD") were told the defendant was autistic and received additional
information about ASD in the "ASD + Knowledge" group.
Results
We found that for autism relevant crimes (assault and stalking), defendants with ASD received lower sentences than defendants without a (mentioned) diagnosis. f=or the autism irrelevant crime (burglary), autistic defendants were not judged more lenient than defendants without a
(mentioned) diagnosis. Further analysis indicated that participants did indeed consider the link between ASD traits and the committed offense.
Although there was a clear effect of crime type on the judgement of defendants with ASD, no difference was observed between the participants that did and did not receive information about ASD.
Conclusion
Knowing how different types of information can affect sentencing behaviour is crucial for training employees in the criminal justice system. Future research is needed exploring the relation between different types of information about ASD and sentencing decisions for autistic defendants.